Today J Street, the pro-peace process political action committee and lobby that major Jewish leaders love to hate, announced that National Security Adviser James Jones will keynote their first national conference, scheduled to begin here in Washington on October 25.

One reason so many leaders of established pro-Israel groups are apoplectic about J Street is that they fear the dovish group, which isn't exactly in sync with the current government in Jerusalem, has good access to the Obama White House.

Thursday, June 25th, 2009
As this blog reported last week, longtime U.S. Middle East peace negotiator and pro-Israel think tanker Dennis Ross is going over to the White House; as numerous blogs have reported, it’s something of a promotion for Ross, who had a nebulous role at the State Department as a special envoy to something or other.
Here’s what the NSC spokesman had to say: